


The Beginning is the End is the Beginning

by Dreamyuniversestuff



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-12
Updated: 2014-08-12
Packaged: 2018-02-12 19:12:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2121459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamyuniversestuff/pseuds/Dreamyuniversestuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary:  An AU story. It begins one night on the Vegas Strip and it will take Oliver on a different journey. Much of canon is in play but what if the Felicity we know and loved didn’t exist as we know her today.  What if she was someone else, something else?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beginning is the End is the Beginning

**Seven and a half years ago…….**

 

Conference calls should be illegal at midnight but business never sleeps.  Especially if you want to be CEO one day. 

 

Pulling the drapes open, Oliver Queen looked out the window to see the Vegas Strip.  The view was quite spectacular but he didn’t have time for views.  Not anymore.

 

If he wanted to get the company when his father retired, if his father retired, then he had a lot of work to do.  Work his ass off was more like it. 

 

Sleep eluted him. Sleep deprivation was a constant in his life now and was the way he would get to the top.  Closing the drapes, his stomach growled.

 

Oliver checked his watch.  Might as well go see if he could find something to eat.  Whoever heard of a hotel not having room-service after midnight?  Next year, the Queen Consolidated conference was being held in Gotham or Central City.  Somewhere closer to home.

 

Home, who even knew what that was anymore?  He spent more time on the road dealing with mergers than he did with his own parents and Thea.  He missed Thea.  She was growing up so fast and he wasn’t even there to see her most of the time.  Oliver took a deep breath in and rubbed his eyes.

 

Oliver checked his back pocket, found his key card and proceeded out the door.  Hearing the click of the lock, he made his way to the elevator. 

 

Pushing the button, he noticed his reflection in the hallway mirror.  His sleeves rolled up, his pants just a bit wrinkled.  Not his usually state of dress.  If there was one thing Oliver Queen did well was dress.  Hopefully, the lobby wouldn’t be too crowded.  But this was Vegas.

 

The elevator dinged.  When it reached the lobby, he stepped off the elevator and noticed it was remarkable quiet.  Where was that bar again? he thought.

 

Taking only a minute to find it, Oliver stepped into the bar. 

 

Far off to the left was a dark-haired woman tickling the ivories of a baby grand piano.  She didn’t look up.  She was memorizing to watch.  Her head moved to the ebb and flow of her tune, her fingers in a steady rhythm as they hit the keys.

 

Silently he watched.  She was lost in another world.  A world without mergers, CEO’s and life.  She wasn’t smiling but she looked content.  A feeling that eluded Oliver.

 

Oliver Queen liked to think of himself as a reasonable man but reason flew out the window as soon as he laid eyes on her.

 

She wasn’t the most beautiful woman he ever laid eyes on, but she had something that shined though.  Something Oliver didn’t always see.  But he did tonight.  Maybe it was fatigue.  Maybe fate.  Who knew?  All Oliver knew was he was drawn to her.  A siren playing the piano.  Calling him.  Beckoning him.

 

Just listening to the sound of the piano.  His hunger forgotten.  His thoughts on the brunette.  He didn’t even recognize the song.

 

Walking over to the piano, he realized the woman was much younger up-close.  She couldn’t have been more than sixteen or seventeen.  Great, now he was not only going crazy but a pervert to boot.

 

He could have stared at her all night but it was rude not to introduce himself.  And his mother had taught him better.

 

“Beautiful.”  The melody was down right haunting now.  It shifted as soon as he neared her.

 

“Thank you.” she said.  Her mother had obvious taught her some manners but she still hadn’t stop playing.  Hadn’t even looked up from the piano. 

 

“I wasn’t talking about the music.” His words caused her to stop and look up at him.  She was quite lovely.  Her eyes blue as the sea.  Cliche but so true.  Her lips sweet enough to taste.  Her auburn hair glistening in the light.

 

She blushed.  Something women never did around him.  It was sweet.  Heart-warming actually.  Not a lot in the world was able to warm Oliver Queen’s heart.  But she did. 

 

The simplest things always make the biggest impression.  And she was making quite the impression.  A lasting one, for sure.

 

“No.  I bet you weren’t.”  She seemed to be considered him.  There was no recognition in her eyes.  

 

“Does that line actually work?” she continued with a tilt of her head.

 

His smile broke out into laughter.  Women didn't usually call him on his bullshit, then again this was no woman.  Well, that wasn’t exactly true, she was somewhere between girl and woman.

 

“From where I’m standing.  It seemed to work just fine.”  His hand reaching up to her cheek where the remnants of her blush were slowly fading.

 

Her hand reaching up to touch his.  He was surprised she didn’t push him away.  She even leaned into his touch.  Her skin was so soft.  Softer than he remember any female touch.

 

She was so trusting.  A true heart. Even though he didn’t know her, he knew her. God, he was sounding like a cheesy romance novel but he couldn’t help it.  Oliver Queen was falling, but who knew where to?

 

Time stood still. Oliver had never had this feeling before.  He was content but it was more than that.  So much more than that.  It was if his soul had finally found what it had been searching for.

 

He quickly removed his hand from hers and he already felt like something was missing.  The absence of her touch a great loss he realized.  He hadn’t been in her presence more than five minutes and already he was lost. 

 

He didn’t know what to say so he said the first thing that came to mind. “I feel like I’ve know you..”

 

“My whole life.”  she finished his sentence, now that was a little freaky.  But everything about this was a little freaky.

 

“Which probably is a lot shorter than mine.”  He put it out there.  Their age difference, now why would he do something so stupid.  Definitely, not the suave Oliver Queen the world knew.

 

“I’ll have you know that I’m eighteen.”  She pushed her hair behind her ears, straightening up on the piano bench but never leaving its safety.

 

“Do you have documents to that affect?”  His grin spreading from ear to ear.

 

“I could always whip some up.”  She return his grin and then some.

 

“You’re remarkable.”  She was.  Like no one he had ever meet.  No pretense.  No expectations.  Just a boy and a girl.  It doesn’t get more magical than that.

 

“Thanks for remarking on it.” She stood, revealing their height difference.  He towered over her. It was a nice feeling.

 

“Here I am flirting with you, and I don’t even know your name.”  There was no deal to seal here.  He wasn’t looking for a hook-up.  He just wanted to know everything about her in the time they had together.

 

“Oh, I know who you are, Mr. Queen.”  For the first time, she had the upper hand. Or so he let her think.

 

“That’s not fair.  I don’t know who you are.”  His eyes piercing into hers.  He knew how to use his baby blues but something told him she wasn’t the type to fall over him.  And that quality was one that he was hard pressed to find.  In anyone.

 

“Me. I’m nobody.  Nobody you’ll ever see again.”  It was true.  But they were words he didn’t want to hear.  He wanted to see her again and again.  But magical nights hardly ever repeat.  A once in a lifetime meeting.  A chance encounter.

 

“Megan.  Are you playing my piano again?”  A man walked up and interrupted them.

 

“Sorry, Charlie.  Just waiting for my Mom.”  She looked at Charlie with a sheepish grin.

 

“Megan, huh?”  So that was her name.  A beautiful name, but it didn’t suit her.  She was more than just Megan.   A muse.  A siren.  A temptress without even making an effort.

 

She didn’t answer him.  She just looked at him.  It was if someone was truly seeing him for the first time.  Oliver knew he was a handsome man, but the way she was looking at him.  It was if they were the only two people on earth.  The way she looked at him was life-changing.

 

“Dance with me, Megan?”

 

“I’m too young for you.  You said it yourself.”  True, but she wouldn’t always be.

 

“You’re never too young to dance.”  And he was pretty sure it wasn’t illegal to dance with a minor.

 

“Okay.”  She took his outstretched hand.  A soft melody was coming from the piano.  Charlie had sat down and was playing a romantic song.  Oliver couldn’t place it but he didn’t care.

 

Pulling her close, he smelled her essence.  She smelled like sunshine and strawberries. Intoxicating.  He was drunk on her in a matter of seconds.  Pure bliss.  Oliver didn’t know anything but her at this moment.

 

She felt like heaven in his arms.  Absolution, salvation.  Words that he never knew the meaning of.  Until today.  Until she was in his arms.  He felt his body tingle with anticipation but that’s all it would ever be.

 

His soul ached for her, recognizing her anywhere.  His other half.  His far better half.  But he was too lost in the feel of her to even know it.  If he did, he would have never let her go.

 

Oliver Queen had waited his whole life for this one night and didn’t even know it.

 

 And as soon as it began, it was over.  Painful and devastating.

 

“I have to go.  Goodbye, Oliver.”  His name sounded sweet coming from her lips.

 

“Bye Megan.”  He didn’t want to say goodbye.  How could he let his future walk away?  Easy.  He knew this wasn’t the last time he would see Megan.  Fate couldn’t be so cruel.  Could it?

 

Before tonight, Oliver Queen would have scoffed at the idea of fate, destiny, soul mates.  But now?  Now, he wasn’t so sure.

 

He stared as she walked out of his life, wondering if fate would ever bring her back.  God, he hoped so.

 

Later when Oliver fell fast asleep he dreamed of a life with a brunette beauty that could play the piano.  And he never slept better in his life.  

 

His life would never be the same.  He would never be the same.  But you never know those moments are coming until they past you by.

 

 

 

**Seven and a half years later….**

 

The television was blaring in the lair while Oliver was heading down the steps.  It had been an easy night but still he didn’t want to come home to a tv so loud it would make his deaf. “Turn it down.  How can anyone get anything done down here?”

 

It was Roy that answered, “We’re waiting for an update on that Smoak dude.  Apparently, he robbed the bank again.”

 

Oliver put down his quiver and bow.  Damn they needed a maid down here.  He wanted someone to put away his stuff after a long night.  And there was no way Laurel or Thea would do it.

 

Only Roy and Diggle were left down in the Foundry.  Thea and Laurel only came in on big take-downs.  Oliver didn’t want them in harms way.  Well, not any more than they were already in.

 

It had taken two years to build this family after coming back from the island.  There had been losses.  Tommy. His mother. Helena.  But there were also gains.  Barry.  Sara. Nyssa, if you could call her a gain. 

 

It had taken Slade to finally let Thea in on his secret and then he did the unthinkable by offering her up as bait.  But since then Thea had proved her weight in gold.  She was also handy with a computer, which was an area that Team Arrow was severely lacking.

 

Lost in thoughts, Oliver mindless put away his gear.  Maybe Raisa could learn his secret.  A little cleaning went a long way.

 

“ _The master criminal Smoak once again robbed Starling National Bank, never even entering the building.  Police are saying that the evidence reveals the intentions of the criminal.  A nice chunk of money is now in the citizens of the Glade’s hands. Let’s go to our reporter on scene.  Felicity Smalls.  Felicity, what can you tell us_?”

 

Oliver looked up the the tv just in time to see the blonde on screen.  He narrowed his eyes looking at the screen, more specifically the reporter.  She bared a little resemblance to a girl Oliver once meet.   But this reporter wore glasses and had a different hair color.

 

Megan. 

 

It had been years since he thought about that night in Vegas.  Well, that wasn’t exactly true.  It was always there in the back of his mind.  Like a haunting feeling that never went away.  Like you forget something on your vacation and when you return home, the garage door was open. Not there but never truly gone.

 

She was always there.  Always, even in Hong Kong.  On the island.  Everywhere and nowhere at the same time.  A paradox.

 

In a way she kept him alive. Finding her, thinking of her.  It helped forge him into the man he was today.  A good man, a flawed man but good.  A hero with a purpose.  He wondered if he had never met her, how different he would be?  Would he just be a killer?  A closed off liar that was just crossing names off a list. 

 

He had tried to look for her after the island.  But Megan has disappeared.  She had been an enigma.  An imaginary beauty.  Sometimes, Oliver questioned if that night really even happened.  There was no trace of Megan, if that was even her real name.

 

“ _Welcome to the team, Felicity._ ”  Someone turned the tv off behind him.

 

“Well, that’s a new one.  Looks like we have our very own Robin Hood.”  Roy seemed happy at the thought.  His life could have been very different.  Oliver was thankful that Roy was here.  Fighting right beside him.

 

“Yeah.  But we need to stop him.”  Dig pulled his arms to his chest with a determined look on his face.  Good.  They would need some determination to find this Smoak.

 

“Dig, let’s find anything we can on this guy.”  Oliver might not be able to find his Megan, but he could find this Smoak character.  And Felicity Smalls seemed like a good place to start.

 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to bre_0 for the beta:) 
> 
> hope you all like it. Let me know what you think!!


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